May Search Numbers Out! Yahoo And Bing "Gain" Share Again Thanks To Gimmicks

For the second month in a row, Yahoo and Microsoft's Bing appear to have gained share in comScore's search market share report.

But in reality, their share gains are only because of gimmicks like slideshows and links that turn what users think is normal web browsing into artificial search queries.

Broadpoint AmTech analyst Ben Schachter explains in a report:

Headline comScore data remains confusing for investors and needs to be adjusted in order to highlight trends. The U.S. May headline search share numbers from comScore show that YHOO and Bing continue to gain share, with each adding approximately 60 bps and 30 bps to 18.3% and 12.1%, respectively. The reported data also showed GOOG's share down again, declining approximately 70 bps for the second consecutive month to 63.7%. While these numbers are correct on an apples-to-apples basis (in the sense that certain types of searches - e.g. contextual shortcuts and slide-shows - are being counted consistently across properties), the trending data for which we think comScore is most useful shows a different picture.

On an adjusted basis, backing out YHOO and MSN's use of contextual shortcuts and image slide-shows from both May and April, we estimate YHOO's share declined roughly 30 bps m/m in May to 16.6%, while MSN's share was flat m/m at approximately 10.8%. GOOG, after a small data collection adjustment to the April data, appears to have gained roughly 30 bps of share in May to 66.4%.

It looks like comScore's data -- at least before it's adjusted -- is going to be less and less meaningful as search companies continue to put their engines on stilts by stuffing the ballot with fake searches.